In the March issue of VIP Magazine, we caught up with fashion designer Helen Steele.
The artist tells us that she has dressed the likes of Saoirse Ronan before becoming a mainstream name with her activewear range.
Art and being creative has always been close to her heart. She admits she struggled in school, in fact she was overcome with “crippling shame” due to her inability to “learn the same way as everyone else”.
However, in her twenties, she was diagnosed with ADHD.
Speaking to VIP Magazine, she tells us how she found the diagnosis a relief.
“The relief was massive. I came out of school with crippling shame about not being able to learn the same way as everyone else and about not being able to adapt myself in the ways others did. I suppose with age you learn how to be an adult,” she tells us.
She goes on to say: “At home growing up education was really important. I remember burning my 6th year school report – and my sister’s – so my parents wouldn’t freak! And I actually got my appendix taken out so I wouldn’t have to sit my 5th year summer exams! Mental shit!”
She admits that she feels “lucky” that she was able to go to a good school as she knows many other people are not afforded the same thing.
“I was really lucky because my parents and grandparents were really good at investing time and energy into finding what my interests were. I went to such great schools, and in secondary school I got into sport and had a great English teacher.
“I was lucky to be born into a family that could afford to send me to really good schools. Not all children who have ADHD, or ADD, or dyspraxia, dyslexia, or Aspergers, or autism, have the chances I had. I was just bloody lucky.”
Pick up the March issue of VIP Magazine for the full chat
